Topic: The Last Guardian

[NovaQ]

Formerly referred to as "Trico," Team ICO's PS3 game The Last Guardian is meant to be the third and final chapter in the ICO/Shadow of the Colossus trilogy. Like previous entries, it stars a seemingly clumsy young man on a quest. This time, he's accompanied by a... giant bird-dog. Thing. It looks great, though, and is sure to be another atmospheric success from Team ICO. Here's the debut trailer, and here are some screens I yoinked from bingegamer.net:











EDIT: An early interview between IGN and the game's director, Fumtio Ueda.

It looks from the trailer and interview to be a mix between the castle-crawling puzzle-solving of ICO and the awesome interactivity with giants from SotC. Man, I've got to find a PS3 I can borrow when this comes out! Anyone else as excited for this as I am?

[Caliban]

I am. I like SotC quite a bit even if I haven't finished the game yet.
I have yet to try, or find Ico, but I would love to just to see what's it all about.

[D_Average]

I haven't played the other games, but that trailer has me hyped.  It actually made my jaw drop.  Similar to the first time I saw Mario 64 footage.  So yeah, you could say I"m excited.   

[broodwars]

While I'm really looking forward to this one, it's a little annoying that the boy is seemingly rendered in an entirely different art style from the creature and the environments, making him look really out-of-place and kind of ugly in that trailer. I really love the animation on the creature, though.  It acts just like my dogs, right down to the subtle stuff like how the head moves.

I still need to play Ico (I own and have beaten Shadow of the Colossus), but I just can't find the game anywhere.

[NWR_DrewMG]

Loved, loved, loved, loved LOVED Ico.

Liked Shadow of the Colossus quite a bit.

Willing to spend $300 on a PS3 for this game.  Now it's up to Sony to make that price happen, and me to convince my wife that I really *do* in fact, need this.

[KnowsNothing]

I'm playing through Ico right now, and then plan to move on to SotC.  So far Ico is really quite good, I'm just afraid it will be over too quickly and I can't imagine it would have much replay value.  That said I'm not all that interested in the Last Guardian, essentially because it's on the PS3 and there's no way I would ever buy one.  Ah well.

For those of you looking for Ico, you can get it for a decent price on ebay or the amazon marketplace (used of course, unless you want to drop hundreds of dollars).  Every once in a while it will show up on amazon for $30 which is not a terrible price since you can most likely sell it right back when you're done for the same amount or more.

[NWR_DrewMG]

Ico tells a very interesting story completely through body language and environmental elements.  Very little dialog to speak of, and half of it is in a foreign language.

[Sundoulos]

That announcement makes me a little sad.  I wasn't aware that this would be a last game in a trilogy.  I just thought they all shared some thematic (and possible character) links.

This is the only game that will probably make me sad that I don't own a PS3. 

I fear for the creature, though.  Given it's pedigree, and a name like "The Last Guardian", is there any chance this game will have a happy ending?  I wonder...

[NovaQ]

I fear for the creature, though.  Given it's pedigree, and a name like "The Last Guardian", is there any chance this game will have a happy ending?  I wonder...

It may depend on where this one fits in the timeline (if indeed there is one between the three games). I'm interested to see what connection The Last Guardian will share with ICO and SotC.

[broodwars]

I fear for the creature, though.  Given it's pedigree, and a name like "The Last Guardian", is there any chance this game will have a happy ending?  I wonder...

Well, considering what happened to Aggro in Shadow of the Colossus, I think there's a good sign that the creature could be seemingly mortally-wounded but still survive by the ending.

[NinGurl69 *huggles]

You fight it at the end and kill it just like Secret of Mana.  There.

[Stogi]

This looks fantastic. I have no idea what it will play like, but if it's anything like SotC, then I'd be willing to buy in a heartbeat.

[DAaaMan64]

Never Ending Story the Game will rule all.

[Stogi]

You know...that's the first thing I thought when I saw the beast.

[NovaQ]

Never Ending Story the Game will rule all.

"I love children..."

Boy, I hope someone else remembers that quote.

[NovaQ]

Here's a link to an interview from IGN, which gives several interesting tidbits:

-The game's Japanese title is "Hito Kui no Oowashi Toriko" ("Toriko" can also be transcribed as "Trico"), or "The Giant Man-Eating Eagle Toriko."

-The idea of having a giant "eagle" companion has been at the center of the game's development from the beginning. It started as a means of putting a relationship like Wander and Argo's (from SotC) at the game's forefront.

-The eagle's animations are taken from dogs and cats, of course, but also monkeys and ducks. The creature was designed to look both natural and odd, but not too cute.

-The player won't have direct control over the eagle, but will be able to influence its behavior. An example given in the article is that the player can throw a barrel to a certain spot where s/he wants the hungry eagle to go.

-The AI of ICO and "collision schemes" of SotC have been rebuilt for the PS3. This is the first game from Team ICO to use a physics engine. This is illustrated in the trailer when the eagle eats a barrel thrown into its mouth; those are not canned animations, apparently.

-This last point wasn't actually addressed in the interview, but it's something I've noticed so far. There doesn't yet appear to be a direct connection between The Last Guardian and Team ICO's previous games. It's certainly possible, but aside from the game being introduced at Sony's conference as a part of a trilogy (and the lead boy looking similar to Ico), there's no real evidence supporting it.

[NWR_DrewMG]

There was no connection between SotC and Ico until the very final shot of the ending, so...

[Stratos]

I've wanted to get SotC for some time but never gotten around to it. This looks really nice. This may make me choose PS3 over 360 for my second console. Guardian and MGS4 are two big reasons I want a PS3. Other than Rare stuff, most of the HD games I want are on both systems.

[NovaQ]

There was no connection between SotC and Ico until the very final shot of the ending, so...

You're right, and I think I remember reading somewhere that the connection to ICO wasn't planned until later in SotC's development. But once you've seen that final shot, you can find other connections with earlier elements in SotC's story (especially its whole end sequence). You have to work your imagination and, thus, there are few clear-cut connections beyond that final shot. But having to use your imagination, especially in a game like SotC (and ICO) is part of why I find Team ICO's games so memorable.

Guardian and MGS4 are two big reasons I want a PS3. Other than Rare stuff, most of the HD games I want are on both systems.

I agree. When and if Sony decreases the PS3's price, I may just get one, myself.

[NWR_DrewMG]

But having to use your imagination, especially in a game like SotC (and ICO) is part of why I find Team ICO's games so memorable.

Absolutely agree with this, 100%.  The way that Ico and SOTC tell a moving story using nothing but body language and mostly wordless cut scenes has always really impressed me. 

I need to replay SotC sometime soon, I've only played it once.  I remember being kind of frustrated with the limitations of the PS2 at the time.

[NovaQ]

I need to replay SotC sometime soon, I've only played it once.  I remember being kind of frustrated with the limitations of the PS2 at the time.

I imagine you're mostly referencing the frame rate. For some reason, it just didn't bother me that much. I think Perfect Dark was worse, but I was fine with it, too, mostly. I guess being exposed to it a lot when I was a kid playing SNES and Genesis games helped with that?

Anyway, replaying SotC is a lot of fun, both for the awesome battles and that the story has a new extra layer of depth. I think you can unlock a challenging time attack mode, too, though I don't remember the exact requirements.

[NWR_DrewMG]

Yep, frame rate.  That's always been one of my biggest pet peeves.  I'll take a lower poly count over low frame rate every time.  What confuses me is that there are so many other games on PS2 that don't have that problem whatsoever - take God of War for instance. 

[NovaQ]

Yep, frame rate.  That's always been one of my biggest pet peeves.  I'll take a lower poly count over low frame rate every time.  What confuses me is that there are so many other games on PS2 that don't have that problem whatsoever - take God of War for instance.

Maybe it's Argo's fault? I'm not sure what happened with SotC. It had a long development cycle, I believe. It doesn't strike me as being a title that was rushed for release. Perhaps the team just couldn't get the game to run any smoother with everything they had going on at once (AI; gigantic animations; lots of textures; probably some blooming effects, if I remember correctly; etc.).

What I don't expect but would be really fantastic is if Team ICO hid an optimized version of SotC in The Last Guardian. Considering Ueda said that previous game's systems were rebuilt for PS3, I imagine it would be a lot more work than a simple port.

[NWR_DrewMG]

That would pretty much blow my mind. 

And yeah, I'm guessing that the engine needed to compensate for objects as large as the colossi needs a lot of horsepower, which would be the root cause of the framerate issues.

I also had some control issues in SotC, I thought it was a bit clumsy at at times.  None of this broke the experience for me, it just wasn't present in Ico, which is why I was a bit disappointed.

[NovaQ]

That would pretty much blow my mind. 

And yeah, I'm guessing that the engine needed to compensate for objects as large as the colossi needs a lot of horsepower, which would be the root cause of the framerate issues.

I also had some control issues in SotC, I thought it was a bit clumsy at at times.  None of this broke the experience for me, it just wasn't present in Ico, which is why I was a bit disappointed.

Yeah, I was surprised by the amount of complexity and videogame-iness that was in SotC compared to ICO. Like you said, the controls were simple in ICO and the game felt very atmospheric and "pure." SotC added a lot of complexity with on-foot controls, Argo controls, and climbing/fighting colossi controls. Plus, there was the added time attack mode that I mentioned before (with unlockable items depending on how many you cleared). It felt much more gamey than its predecessor.

I love ICO, but I think when it comes down to it, I enjoyed SotC more. While it traded in some of ICO's simplicity and atmosphere, it overall felt like a more substantial and complete title to me (especially with its story and plot connection to ICO). To someone who hasn't played either of them, though, I'd recommend the more inviting ICO first.